Year 1/2

Welcome back to Term 4,

We hope you and your family enjoyed a wonderful and refreshing break! As we return to school, we are excited to reconnect with the students and settle back into our learning routines. It’s always a delight to hear about the children’s holiday adventures, and we are looking forward to seeing their happy faces and renewed enthusiasm for learning.

This term, we will continue to build on our focus on student wellbeing through the Respectful Relationships Program. Students will explore activities and discussions that help them:

Recognise the different things they enjoy and how their preferences may be similar to or different from their peers.
Understand that having a variety of skills and strengths helps us learn, build resilience, and have fun.
Appreciate that knowing about each other’s interests and preferences supports positive relationships and teamwork.
Recognise that the opposite of violence is respect, and practise respectful ways of interacting with others.
Role-play friendly and fair ways to join in play with others.
Learn and demonstrate strategies they can use to support and include their peers.

Through these lessons, students will continue to develop the skills they need to build respectful, supportive, and positive relationships both in and out of the classroom.

Reading:

This term, our Year 1/2 students will continue to enjoy regular reading groups where they can practise different strategies to grow as confident and independent readers. We’ll keep building on their phonics skills to strengthen sound and letter knowledge, helping them tackle tricky words and become more fluent writers too. Our reading focus will also include higher-level comprehension skills, such as finding the main idea, making inferences, exploring cause and effect, and comparing characters and ideas across texts. These skills will encourage students to think more deeply about what they read and develop a lasting love of books.

Writing:

Our Grade 1/2 students will continue to strengthen their phonics knowledge, which is a vital part of learning to read and write. Phonics helps children understand the relationship between letters and sounds, allowing them to decode unfamiliar words when reading and to spell more confidently when writing. We will continue to practise these skills daily. This will help our students develop greater accuracy, fluency, and independence in their literacy.

In writing, we will be focusing on two exciting areas- persuasive texts and poetry. Through persuasive writing, students will learn how to share their opinions, give reasons, and convince others using arguments. Alongside this, we will be exploring poetry, where students can play with words, rhythm, and imagery to create imaginative and expressive pieces.

As they continue to develop their writing skills, students will also be working on the “Big 3” – using full stops, capital letters, and finger spaces consistently. We will encourage them to include “Oxford” words (connectives) and WOW words to make their writing more interesting and engaging. These focus areas will help students grow as confident, creative, and purposeful writers.

Math

Next term, our Year 1/2 students will continue to grow their numeracy skills in exciting and hands-on ways. We’ll be building on their place value knowledge, helping them understand how numbers work and how they fit together. Students will also explore financial maths, learning about money and how it’s used in real-life situations through games and practical activities. We’ll dive into simple fractions by sharing and dividing objects, and investigate area, volume, and capacity through fun, hands-on measuring tasks. These activities are designed to make maths meaningful, engaging, and enjoyable, while giving students the confidence to apply their skills both in the classroom and in everyday life.

Inquiry

In Geography this term, students will be learning about different places and the connections people have to them. They will explore natural and built features, including how weather and seasons can change places, and why people feel attached to certain locations. Students will also look at how places can be cared for, both locally and in other parts of Australia and the world. Through asking questions, collecting and sorting information, and sharing their ideas, students will develop their understanding of how places are important to people and how they are connected across different scales.

Make sure to check out our Year 1/2 term newsletter for updates on classroom learning, key dates, and upcoming events. This term we look forward to sharing your child’s progress and celebrating their achievements with you through regular updates. We truly value the partnership between home and school, as your support makes a big difference to your child’s learning. If you have any questions or would like to chat, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your child’s teacher.

Thankyou

Year 1/2 Team